“that these dead shall not have died in vain– that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” (U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

) It is one of the best known speeches in world history and perhaps one of the greatest and the most influential statements for any form of democracy.

Freedom and democracy are often deemed interchangeable but the two are certainly not synonymous and it can safely be premised that democracy is the institutionalization of freedom and constitution is the bulwark of democracy.

Now to a more pertinent question, What is constitution? The answer is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which an organization is governed making a clear demarcation of the responsibilities assigned to each individual responsible for running the organization.

“Two score and five years ago,” the founding fathers of Indian Society of Periodontology also envisioned a constitution for the society framing a set of rules and regulations guiding the administration of our society. Having spent some years in the formal structure of the society and looking at its functioning has convinced me no end as to how little significance has been attached into making vast number of society members aware of the salient features contained in this most influential governing document.

Almost the entire last decade spent within the society as an EC member and an office bearer, I have never come across any formal program/workshop/orientation lecture devoted to understanding our constitution even for the new incumbents, who happy and enthusiastic as they are to be a part of this august body continue to come up with one fanciful suggestion after another for changing certain workings of the society, completely ignorant and oblivious of the constitutional clauses behind it. The fact that the might of the constitutional mandate is required if any such suggested changes has to see the light of the day. What to talk of new members, even a number of semi-veterans like your's truly were also all at sea regarding the finer nuances enshrined in the constitution (till I started having a closer look at it that being a major part of my job and I am still learning), each trying to analyse it as per his/her own convenience and understanding or lack of it.

It is my perspective and privately many individuals agree to it that a lot of ills which have plagued the society in the past and continue to dog it even today could have been avoided had there been a complete understanding and willingness to practice constitution in its purest form. It should become a norm to send a digital copy of constitution to every member along with membership number. Every executive member and office bearer should take an oath of allegiance on our constitution and there should be orientation programs for a better comprehension of our holy book. Also head office through the EC should identify some of our learned veterans as resource persons to propagate the body and soul of our constitution to the general members.

As members of this most prestigious organization it is our beholden constitutional duty to do so for the coming generations of periodontists.